Tech stocks rise as Icahn Agitates Yahoo

The renegade investor - who had purchased 59 million shares of Yahoo over the past 10 days - said in a letter to Yahoo's board that it had "acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders" when it turned down Microsoft's takeover bid.

Yahoo gain 61 cents to close at $27.75 on the Nasdaq stock market.

The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite Index rose 37 points to 2,533, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index advanced 8.43 points, or 2.1 percent to 419.72.

Acquisitions led the tech sector with CBS putting $1.8 billion on the table to purchase tech media publication Cnet Networks. The price represented a 45 percent premium over Cnet's closing price yesterday, sending shares up $3.46, or 43 percent.

IAC/Interactive's Ask.com said it would acquire Lexico Publishing for an undisclosed amount. Shares of IAC dropped negligibly by 2 cents to $23.71.

Gains also came among a number of bellwether technology stocks , with Intel gaining $1.13, or 4.7 percent to close at $24.97, Cisco jumping 75 cents , or 4.7 percent, to $24.97, and Hewlett-Packard rising $1.09, or 2.4 percent to close at $46.73.